


Gossip

by Aithilin



Category: Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Xenophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 10:46:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7711954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aithilin/pseuds/Aithilin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>People will always talk and spread rumours before they know the fact of the situation. Fai is new, and different, in Kurogane's Japan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gossip

**Author's Note:**

> This is my entry for the [2016 KuroFai Olympics!](https://kurofai.dreamwidth.org/) If you enjoyed it, please go to the KuroFai community on Dreamwidth to cast your vote! 
> 
> My subject was "Fools Rush In" for Team Dark, and I chose to stay closer to the original quote's meaning-- only fools rush in with their opinions.

There were whispers in the day; slow, infectious whispers that spread through the Imperial palace and across the city. Whispers that tore at good names and deeds until they twisted the very image of their subject. Whispers that twisted through the Imperial hallways and around the back rooms— carried on the tongues and lips of the unjust, ignorant nobles; spread to the susceptible ranks of the servants and caretakers; carried through streets and cities and towns and villages by the ignorant poor. They spread as if on the wind, carried further in the sun and light by business and duty taking them further and further across the country after Kurogane and Fai arrived. 

Kurogane had always thought himself above the plague of gossip. He had seen the way his parents brushed away the harsh rumours like dust— how they had pulled themselves a head higher than the petty, oblivious lords who came seeking to disprove his father’s strength and missions; those who challenged the stories of demons and monsters just on the edges of the territory. The way priests had come to questions his mother’s powers and talents; who came to disprove the gifts and strength of a woman who managed her own holy shrines. 

He had heard all the rumours spread about him through his youth. The beast, the untamed. Made demon by the destruction of his village. The killer. Tomoyo’s shadow. He had heard he was sick with the taint of magic. Was just a shade created by a corrupt princess (she was a _child_ ; innocent and kind in the face of the hated world around her. If anything, Kurogane was her _shield_ ). 

Like his parents before him, he had brushed the words off like dust from his cloak. Had washed away the fear and derision as he washed the blood of his princess’ enemies from his hands. He had always known that the fools who believed the rumours could be dangerous, but he was far more deadly than any of them. 

The whispers hadn’t bothered him until they were about Fai. 

It was human nature, he knew, to fear the different or strange, or unknown. Fai was all of those things in one, when they came to Japan, so he wasn’t certain why it surprised him that the nobles at court kept their distance or the servants skirted around as far from Fai’s attention as possible. 

“They don’t seem to like me, Kuro-sama.” Fai had said one night, fiddling with the latest collection of ribbons Tomoyo had decorated his hair with— colourful pieces of fabric braided through the pallid strands to twist into something otherworldly. The look had reminded Kurogane of the colourful smokes and steams of Piffle all day. 

“Of course they don’t,” Kurogane had heard far more than just the idea that Fai wasn’t liked in the Imperial court; “you’re weird.”

“Kuro-pu is so mean!”

Kurogane didn’t mind the rumours himself. Not the ones that still accused him of being dangerous, a beast, wild, a shadow. But he was hunting down the source of the rumours about Fai. The font that had trickled out stories of Fai being a spirit, a ghost, a thing of death and night. 

Kurogane was still hunting for whatever noble creature of the court dared to utter the nonsense that Fai was _unlucky_ and _cursed_. 

He didn’t pretend that Fai was oblivious to it all. For all his ranting and growling, he knew that Fai was not an idiot. That he understood the language of Japan, and the court, far more than he let on to those around him. 

And it was in the quiet of the evenings that Kurogane wondered just where that quick tongue and sharp wit had gone. He knew Fai could cut down these new enemies with a few words. 

“Tell me about Suwa, Kuro-sama.” 

It was Fai’s idea to leave the city. To leave the comfort of the palace and the ease of the capital. Kurogane let the rumours spread that it was his idea to reclaim Suwa. 

It was Fai’s idea to run away from the fools who were quick to judge and quicker to spread their judgements. 

It was a week before they could leave. A week of working over maps and plans and the numbers. Most of the plans came from Fai and were relayed by Kurogane— they would start with a small group, scout the area, get to the old village (or what remained of it) and make their plans from their. It was Fai who suggested the scouts— who wanted the back-up. 

For the most part, the few soldiers they had taken with them were more sensible than most of the nobles left behind at court. They preferred to see and sense the threat before they made their judgements; but even the practicality of the soldiers was not enough to keep them from rushing to the first judgement everyone else did (Kurogane certainly knew the feeling of that, but he had been wary of Fai because the man had been hiding things and lying when they first started their travels). 

At least most soldiers didn’t believe in luck, or curses, or spirits. 

“Can it fight?” Asked one man who had scouted ahead for them when the road was lost in the unkempt forests of the Suwa valley. “Or is it here to just warm the lord?”

Kurogane had sent him back to the capital with new bruises for the insult. Fai had only smiled. 

“It’s far too delicate,” said another soldier— much more quietly, much further out of earshot of Kurogane. “Is it useful?”

It was Fai, that afternoon, who took down the first of the demons to cross their path once they stepped outside of Tomoyo’s protections. Kurogane ignored the concerned looks from the soldiers as Fai teased him for missing the first kill, and easily retrieved his arrows with quips about how he shouldn’t be the fastest among them. 

“Is it a demon?”

They spent the nights under stars Kurogane hadn’t seen since his childhood. It was different than in the palace— the sky was still the same, but he had never thought to look up— clearer, warmer. Past the protections of a priestess-princess and the magics of civilisation, it was like a different world. 

There was a scout sat at the edge of the firelight, and the beds cramped together to ward off the dark sounds in the night. Weapons were set, unsheathed in the dirt, ready and waiting for the growls and distant roars to come closer. 

Magic danced on the tips of Fai’s fingers as he traced patterns between the stars, snuggled up against Kurogane in the grass just outside of the fire’s circle. Soft curls of light and colour and feeling drew out the images Kurogane remembered struggling to see in his youth when his father’s adviser would point out constellations. Soft lights that faded quickly to avoid drawing the attentions of the beasts that prowled the forests, followed by grins and giggles as the next story was begged for. And the next. And the next. 

It was only under the harsh light of day that the magic was terrifying— brutal and quick. And only used when all other methods failed against the creatures that plagued Suwa. 

Fai’s energy tore the creatures to shreds when they were ambushed in the forests. Speared the swimming demons lurking at ruined bridges and in the shallows so their little troupe could pass. It flashed and blinded and shredded the dark creatures Kurogane remembered as being much larger, more fearsome, less mortal. Fai blinded the creatures so Kurogane could finish the work himself. 

And when they found the charred, overgrown remains of what used to be a manor house Kurogane could still see standing proud and whole and inviting in his dreams, it was Fai who first struck at the heart of the poison that had corrupted the land. 

At night— that night, when they had settled in an exhausted camp— the air was lighter, the forest warmer, the breeze from the lake and winding down the mountain more open and freeing. And the men laughed with Fai’s bad jokes and teasing, as quick to admire the power and the skill of the mage as they were once quick to judge him harshly. 

At night, Fai was beautiful. Warmth and calm and smiles. 

In the daylight, when they could assess the old village and start the plan to rebuild, it would be different. Fai was used to the harsh lights of sun on snow and the blinding fears that came with rushed gossip. They would send the fastest rider back with the order to commission builders and more soldiers. To approach the Imperial family for more men and tradesmen who could rebuild over the ruins of a world that was long gone. 

Kurogane knew that the rider would take new stories with him. More stories for the gossips in the court about the wild beast lord of Suwa and his deceptive consort. Stories about Fai’s strength and power and smiles in the midst of battle. And new rumours would churn through the city for the fools to latch on to. 

And only the fools and idiots— those who didn’t know any better— would think themselves wise in their fear of the pale mage with golden hair and a foreign magic.

But that was for the morning. For the night, this night, Kurogane could sit with Fai on the edge of a river he remembered in the warmer summers of his childhood and watch the reflection of the stars dance in the clearing shallows, now free of the poisons left by years of demons’ rule. 

“Kuro-sama,” Fai started, still picking flat stones to skip across the water— trails of light and colour hopping along behind them like ribbons. 

“What.”

“I think I’m going to like it here.”

“You damn well better. You’re not going anywhere else, mage.”

“Kuro-rin is so sweet!”

“I am not!”


End file.
